


Hemorrhage

by Geisterschreiber



Category: Transformers: Rescue Bots
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Car Accidents, Depressing, Family, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Gen, No Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:14:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21608128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geisterschreiber/pseuds/Geisterschreiber
Summary: Graham knew that rescue work was dangerous. Had been told about it all his life. Yet he did not think that the danger would arrive so early in his career.Alien Invasion of Griffin Rock AU
Comments: 24
Kudos: 67





	1. Traum

**Author's Note:**

> I have been using this site for forever, but was too lazy to actually get an account and post anything.  
> This entire story came about when I first watched "The Alien Invasion of Griffin Rock" as a child. It just didn't sit right with me the way that the emergency in the beginning resolved itself. So I rewrote it, then forgot about it until recently.  
> The idea wasn't bad, but my writing then was, so I rewrote it again. I also realized just how bad of a portrayal Rescue Bots has of the emergency services as a whole now that I have become an EMT. So I will aim to fix that. Besides there is a shortage of Rescue Bots fanfics, so I thought I'd contribute.  
> Let me know if you'd like future chapters.

It had been the jarring tone of the dispatch alarm that had awoken Graham from his rest. He was not entirely sure when he had actually fallen asleep; only that he had been up late again studying quantum physics and accidentally dozed off. Of course, Graham knew that was a bad habit of his, to risk his health in favor of getting all of his work done, but if he didn’t do so, there’d be no way for him to get everything that needed to be done in a day finished.

Sometimes Graham hated himself for taking on all the summer classes that he had enrolled himself in. If he wasn’t such an overachiever who found worth in himself only when he was constantly busy, Graham might’ve been spared from the repercussions of overworking himself. Nonetheless, he did and now he couldn’t rewind time. He was stuck.

Despite his weariness, Graham found the strength to push himself to an upright position at his desk. Immediately, his previously closed eyes were overcome with a soft, but flashing green light. Barely a second later, Cody’s panicked voice cut through his commlink with information on Griffin Rock’s latest emergency.

“Graham, there’s a tanker truck that’s crashed at Old Canyon Road!”

Graham could still feel the lethargic effects of sleep hanging on him, yet he ignored them, instead bolting from his desk chair, which scraped against the wooden floor.

“Roger that, Cody, we’re on our way,” he responded, groping for his hard hat and finally placing it upon his head before running out the door and sprinting down the hallway.

He ran past the kitchen, where the rest of his family, minus Cody, were still eating breakfast. Barely pausing to punch the button to the elevator, he stepped in, trying to relax his racing heart as the elevator steadily descended into the garage. As soon as the elevator came to a complete stop and the doors slid open far enough for him to squeeze through, Graham was running up to Boulder, who had already transformed into his bulldozer form. He climbed over the track, dropping into the front seat.

Knowing that Boulder would refuse to move even a centimeter without it, Graham buckled himself in, already used to the feeling of the seat belt tightening around his waist and torso. He wasn’t sure if Boulder even realized that he did it, but Graham found the act endearing. It wasn’t difficult to guess how protective the bots, all of them, were of their human charges, even if they were subconscious in showing it. Graham guessed that to Boulder, he was sort of like Cody to him. Much smaller and in need of protection.

Boulder had already started to move, bringing Graham back from his thoughts to reality. There was a hint of humor on Boulder’s face in the mini screen.

“Good morning, Graham,” He said pleasantly.

“Good morning, Boulder.”

With that, the rest of the transport to the scene of the accident was filled with insignificant, but comfortable small talk consisting mostly of Boulder’s gushing about moon cycles. However, Graham didn’t mind it one bit. He wasn’t much of a talker himself unless it was about something engineering or mission-related, so if Boulder was able to fill in the gaps he was unable to fill in himself, the more power to him. Besides, Boulder just seemed so excited about this planet that Graham had lived on his entire life that Graham couldn't help but be amused.

Graham could almost find himself relaxing until they finally pulled up to Old Canyon Road’s mountainous section. Around fifty yards in front of them, Edgar’s old tanker balanced precariously on the edge of a cliff, appearing close to sliding off. After a quick assessment of the scene, Graham found that his two main priorities were 1) rescuing Edgar himself from the truck and 2) preventing the toxic spill guaranteed to follow the labeled payload breaking against the base of the mountain.

He knew that their best option was to try to pull the entire truck back onto the road, but he was unsure of Boulder’s ability to pull such a hefty weight.

“Boulder, would you be strong enough to pull the tanker back up onto the road?” Graham inquired, as they approached the accident.

Boulder looked like he was thinking for a second. Finally, he spoke.

“I think so.”

That was good enough for Graham. Boulder pulled up parallel with the tanker’s tail end as Graham leaped from the cab, grabbing onto Boulder’s rope, and tying it securely to the back of the tanker. It was difficult to get a secure knot when the truck skidded slightly forwards, as the jagged edge it was teetering on began to crumble under the truck's weight, but Graham managed the feat before it fell too far. Moving back, Graham ran back to Boulder’s cab, climbing into the waiting rescue vehicle.

“Ready, Boulder?” Graham asked, gripping Boulder’s left joystick.

Boulder nodded from the miniscreen, affirming that he had heard Graham, before retracting his rope and driving towards the mountainside. According to Graham’s observations, the combined efforts should've been enough to pull the vehicle back onto the ledge with minimal risk to Edgar, the truck, and the rescue partners.

Except it didn’t quite work like that.

As soon as Boulder had moved forward, he came to a jerking stop and started to drift backward before pulling again only for the action to repeat itself. Something had gotten caught. Graham rolled down the bulldozer’s window, poking his head out and turning, as Boulder continued in his efforts.

Graham could easily tell what the problem was. In the time between when he had tied the rope to the truck and Boulder moving, the truck had used all the slack in the rope to fall even further off the cliff, now angled slightly sideways. The truck’s right back wheel was halfway back up on the ledge, while the left one was too far angled against the rock to find enough purchase to come back up over the ledge. Graham knew that to get that truck back up now, he and Boulder would have to purposely let the truck dangle off the cliff, possibly straightening the truck’s balance. Yet the key word there was possibly; he knew that it was just as likely that the truck would either just come back up the same way as it was now or it could spin entirely the other way, making it even harder to pull up than it was currently. That was a risk Graham didn’t want to have to take unless he absolutely had to.

Graham was disrupted from his thoughts when he realized that Boulder was inching backward with every pull. He recognized that Boulder would not be able to keep up with the weight of the truck for forever; his partner’s face on the miniscreen was strained with effort. In that moment, Graham knew that they would need reinforcements on this rescue.

Using the hand that wasn’t clenching Boulder’s joystick, Graham activated his commlink.

“Attention all Burns’ and rescue bots, we need back-up!” He ordered, trying only minimally to hide how stressed he was currently feeling.

The response was nearly instantaneous.

“Graham?” His dad replied, and Graham already knew that he and the rest of the team were preparing to leave and assist them. “What’s your status?”

“We’re at Old Canyon Road, and we can’t get Edgar’s truck….”

Graham was interrupted when Kade cut into the conversation.

“So what do you need us for?” Kade challenged, sounding irritated that his breakfast was most likely cut short.

Graham tried not to get annoyed. “Kade, the truck is hanging off a cliff with Edgar still inside and is carrying a highly toxic payload. Boulder’s struggling with the weight already, and I’m not sure if he can hold on for much longer.”

Next came in Heatwave’s snarky comment, “See Graham actually cares about his partner, unlike some person I know.”

It was hard not to miss Kade’s grunt that followed.

“We’re on our way, Graham,” Chief Burns said, seemingly ignoring both Kade and Heatwave.

With that, the emergency communication line went quiet, and Graham went back to focusing on the situation at hand. Boulder was making the occasional grunt and the cab was shaking more than usual. However, Graham knew that there was little else he could do for his struggling partner. All they could do was wait for the rest of the team to get there.

Graham thought he could hear tires screech as if they pulled up to the scene quickly. Thinking that it might be one of the bots coming to help them, Graham was sorely disappointed when he turned his head to see Huxley Prescott's van come to a stop a good twenty or so feet away from the scene of the accident.

Just what they needed.

Graham ignored Huxley as he began his newscast, instead turning back to Boulder, who had renewed his efforts in lieu of getting too close to the ledge for his own comfort. Out of the corner of his eye, Graham saw Edgar glancing back nervously at them in his rearview mirror.

He leaned out and shouted, “Don’t worry, Edgar. Everything’s going to be fine!” to the fearful man in the wrecked truck.

However, after coming back to rest in his seat, Graham worriedly asked Boulder “It will be fine, won’t it, Boulder?”

Graham could clearly hear the strain in his partner’s voice when he answered with a simple, “I hope so”.

Boulder let out another forced grunt and lurched backward another few feet. What followed then was a sound that could’ve put the church choir to shame. It was the high pitched wail of emergency sirens and the whirring of a helicopter. A smile broke out across his face.

“Hold on just a little longer, Buddy. The cavalry's here.”

Yet, Boulder continued to focus on keeping them from falling off the cliff, which was something that Graham could excuse him for not responding for.

Graham let himself lapse into silence again, as he heard the other bots transform from their vehicle modes. He already knew that Kade would immediately go for rescuing Edgar, so he wasn’t surprised when only Blades and Chase appeared in front of Boulder, grabbing onto the scoop and trying to slow Boulder’s gradual shift back towards the ledge. Chase made some offhand comment about Boulder’s emergency brake, to which Boulder responded to with something along the lines that it wasn’t doing much.

Graham could tell that even the other two bots were also struggling to hold Boulder, even as Kade and Heatwave appeared on his right with Edgar. Grimly, Graham knew that Boulder was exhausted from exertion, and even with the other two bots helping, they were still slowly being dragged backward. Suddenly, they were skidding backward faster than before, and it only took Graham a quick glance up to see why. Chase was laying on his back on the ground as Blades was left to pick up the extra weight. A quick assessment told Graham that Chase’s servos had slipped from Boulder’s scoop, causing him to let go. Yet the two remaining bots were still trying to hold on without him.

However, Graham was not given much time to reflect on the situation, that as Graham was coming up with his explanation, Boulder’s tread had already slid to the edge of the cliff, and their entire center of balance had tipped. Somewhere off to his right, Graham could see Heatwave reaching towards them, as his family stood almost in shock. Graham was vaguely aware that they were in shock at what was happening to him, but he was too terrified to care.

The ledge finally crumbled under Boulder and Blades’ combined weight and suddenly they were falling. As if synchronized, both the bots transformed, Blades flying as Boulder, now in his bot mode, was clinging to Blades’ hook. Yet they were still plunging towards the ground at an alarming speed as the truck and Boulder’s weight was definitely too heavy for Blades to handle.

Graham knew that Boulder knew too as he let go of the hook, and they continued to freefall to the base of the mountain. He distantly heard Blades’ cry of panic as he realized that Boulder was no longer attached to him, before trying to fly down after them.

Surprisingly, Graham did not blame Boulder for letting go. Blades was not able to help them, and would only get hurt in addition to them had Boulder not let go. It was the right call, but Graham still knew that he was going to get seriously hurt and was possibly facing his death. At this realization, all that time Graham had spent studying and holing up from his family seemed like a waste. He couldn't think of the last time that he had spent quality time with anyone, and a hard pang in his chest told him that he may never get the chance to make it up to his family. With his mind clouded with regret, he nearly missed the sensation of freefall.

In all of the movies he watched with his family, freefall was painted as slow motion, an almost dreamlike and beautiful thing. He now knew that wasn’t true. In fact, it was dread at his certain doom, only made worse by his thundering heart and tenseness. If Graham had the ability at that moment, he would have been screaming, but instead, he found it hard to even breathe. Instead of flailing, or something else of the sort, Graham found himself clutching at the sides of his seat, eyes scrunched shut as if simply closing his eyes could teleport him far away from this nightmare he was facing.

His life didn’t flash before his eyes as they hit the ground at full speed, jarring Graham to open his eyes momentarily in searing pain with the air knocked out of him from the impact, only long enough to see the detached rock from the top of the mountain hurtling towards Boulder’s cab.

Graham barely registered the shattering of glass as the rock tore through the windshield and metal frame of Boulder’s torso, and his world came to a screeching halt.


	2. Leid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm back. Again.  
> I thank you for all the love and support that this story has received so far. Here is the next chapter. I hope that it lives up to the last one.

Nobody could do anything as Boulder, Blades, and Graham slid off the cliff, taking a large chunk of rock with them. It wasn’t long until a resounding thud sounded somewhere below them closely followed by the unmistakable noise of glass shattering. Surprisingly, Kade was the first to move towards the stable edge of the cliff, the rest crowding around him at the edge. Even Huxley had fallen silent, discreetly turning off his camera, as he went to look.

At the base of Griffin Rock Mountain lay Boulder in his bot form with a large rock lodged into the right side of his chest. A good ten feet away, Edgar's truck lay in ruin, payload having detached at some point in the fall. Blades circled around the scene of the accident before landing. They were too far away to see much else.

Nobody said a word until Charlie Burns’ voice, albeit shaking, spoke up.

“We’ve got to get down there.”

Everyone else still remained frozen.

“Now!” He ordered.

Finally, both Heatwave and Chase transformed. Kade took Dani’s shoulder and led her over to Heatwave who opened his doors for them. Charlie Burns turned to Huxley who was still standing there almost in shocked silence.

“Go home, Huxley.”

Huxley nodded absentmindedly, before taking his camera and other equipment back to his truck. Charlie watched as he got into the driver’s seat and drove off before he turned to Cody who was visibly shaken and still looking down at the wreckage. He softened at his youngest’s distress. It wasn’t difficult to tell that out of his three older siblings, Cody got along best with Graham, so it was only natural that Cody was worried out of his mind. Hell, even he himself was afraid. Yet, Charlie knew that they had a job to do, so he pushed out his own emotions.

“Come on, Cody,” He said, placing a hand on Cody’s shoulder.

Cody looked up at his father with fearful eyes.

He swallowed before speaking, “Is Graham going to be okay?”

Charlie stiffened. He knew that there was a very real possibility that his second youngest was already dead, but he didn’t want to think that way and he certainly wasn’t going to worry his kid about it before they knew anything for sure.

“I don’t know, Son. Let’s get down there and check it out before we come to any conclusions, 'kay?”

Cody looked down but still made to walk over to Chase and got in the passenger side. Charlie let out a sigh before making his own way to Chase’s driver side.

The sight of the wreck wasn’t any prettier up close. Still, Charlie got out of Chase, catching up with Kade and Dani who were running toward Boulder and Graham with Heatwave and Blades right behind them. He didn’t have to look back to know that both Cody and Chase were tailing him.

Finally, they reached Boulder’s limp form. It seemed that he was offline; not a good sign. Nonetheless, Charlie climbed up onto Boulder’s dented metal, being mindful of the broken glass shards littered across the plating and the rock still encased in the bent metal. 

Charlie knew that he wasn’t going to be much help with Boulder’s status, so when he heard one of the other bots moving up to where Boulder’s head rested, he felt relief. Better that someone familiar with Autobot anatomy took care of Boulder so that he could focus on his son.

Huffing, Charlie stood up on Boulder’s chest. Momentarily, he paused, not wanting to look down at whatever state his child was in. Eventually, he knew that he would have to man up if he wanted any chance to save his son.

He looked down and felt sick. It was hard not to be, seeing one of your children badly hurt like this. Graham had always been on the smaller side, more in the form of his mother, but he looked even smaller now. Almost every inch of his frame was painted in blood; in his hair, soaking through most of his clothing. Even the smell of it hung in the air. He could clearly see various pieces of glass jutting out from the skin. Thankfully most of the cuts seemed shallow, but there was still a lot of blood. Graham was also clearly unconscious. There wasn’t much else that Charlie could see, especially at the odd angle the compression of the cab put him in. He knew that they would need to get Graham out of the cab to get an idea of how extensive the damage was.

“Kade, Dani,” he began, taking a deep breath, “Get up here, will ya.”

There was shuffling and then a few thumps as the two clambered up after him. It wasn’t hard to tell that they were both shocked. Kade, on the other side of the cab, looked like he wanted to cry or maybe puke, but held a forced gaze and held his chin up. Dani had a hand over her mouth and her eyes were wide. Charlie knew that he would have to take control.

“We need to get him out of the cab. Then we can do an assessment.”

Kade nodded while Dani stayed motionless, obviously keeping tears at bay. His eldest pushed past Dani, climbing carefully into the mangled cab until both of his feet were stabled on the back of the cab's interior. He crouched down at his little brother's head, as Charlie followed him down, albeit much slower.

Having EMR training as an emergency responder, Kade placed each of his hands on either side of Graham's head, gradually trying to straighten his neck to stabilize it in case of injury. Charlie didn't like to think that his son could be paralyzed, but he knew that it was better to play on the safe side.

So as soon as he was at the other's level, Charlie leaned down, pressing two fingers against Graham's caryatid artery, feeling for a pulse and looking for a rise and fall of the chest. He felt like he could cry in relief when both were present, despite how fast the pulse was. For right now though, it was good enough.

"Is he…?" Kade trailed off, an uncharacteristically worried expression framing his young adult features.

"Still alive, just unconscious. We still need to get him to safety and assess for anything life-threatening."

At this, Kade relaxed a bit, before straightening up again.

"Let's do it then."

At that, Dani spoke up. "How can I help?"

"Go get your first aid kit and tell Cody to call for an ambulance," Chief ordered, "I don't think that we have enough people to safely get him out quite yet. Kade and I will stay down here."

Dani nodded, moving out of his view.

With Dani gone, Charlie found himself with little to focus on. His emergency training told him that he should be assessing, finding anything that he could do to better the situation, but he was almost frozen. This morning had begun so normal, so mundane. Now he could lose one of his children. He wanted to blame someone, anyone, but there was no one to blame.

He looked at his eldest. Kade seemed transfixed by his brother's battered body, staring at him with glossed over eyes. 

"Kade," Chief began, the younger of the two startling at the mention of his name.

Kade looked at Chief, awaiting his next words, except Chief had no idea what to say. He couldn’t just tell him that Graham was going to be fine, because there was no certainty that he would be telling the truth. As much as he wanted everything to be okay, it was obviously not. Yet he knew that he needed to say something to distract Kade from the situation at hand.

“We’re going to do everything that we can.” At this Kade nodded, and let out a deep breath.

“I know, Dad,” Kade said, averting his eyes.

They then lapsed into silence. Chief hated not being able to provide much comfort to him. He would give anything to be able to go back in time and prevent this from happening, but he knew it was just wishful thinking.

Instead, Chief focused on a new task, as he assessed the damaged cab. He was quick to notice that the boulder had compressed the control panel, not completely, as it had thankfully not hit the cab anywhere close to its center but close enough that the controls had pinched Graham's right leg between the metal. He didn't know how much damage it might've caused, but he sure knew that it would inhibit their ability to extricate Graham later.

Charlie stood up and moved closer to the warped metal, crouching down and inspecting it with a sharper eye.

The first thing he noticed was that the console had forced the leg to an odd angle. Though he couldn't see much due to both the metal and the thick fabric of Graham’s emergency uniform blocking his sight, he could tell that the leg was bleeding. However, he knew that there was no way that he'd be able to bend the metal himself; he would require the help of the right tools, tools that Heatwave carried.

But that could wait. There was a thud above them, indicative of someone approaching them. A quick look up confirmed that it was Dani returning with the med kit. 

She looked like she wanted to turn away from her brother’s grisly appearance, but instead of doing so, she climbed down into the semi-crammed cab. Finally steady in a corner of the cab, Dani placed the med kit on the ground and looked at Chief.

“Cody has EMS on the line,” She said simply, opening the med kit. “They’ll be here soon with two ambulances. He's sitting with Edgar.”

“Good,” Chief said simply.

With that, nobody else spoke. Dani began her assessment; first instructing Kade to maneuver Graham’s head so that she could check his airway. After that, she placed her palms on either side of his chest.

Graham made a soft groan. Everyone’s heads turned to him. Dani let go of his chest and looked at him.

“Graham, you with us?” She asked, in a louder than normal voice.

They waited for a few moments, but nothing happened. Dani made a face, before balling up a fist and rubbing it up and down Graham’s chest in a straight line. Graham let out another groan.

Dani let out a huff. “We can cross checking level of conscious off the list of things I need to do. He’s alert to painful stimulus.”

“Is that good?” Kade blurted out.

“It’s not terrible. Not as good as being fully awake or alert to verbal speech, but better than being fully unconscious in regards to bodily damage,” Dani said simply, returning to her task of checking his breathing.

After a bit, she let go of Graham’s chest, instead pressing her fingertips to the inside of his wrist. Dani held them there for a bit before sitting back up straight.

"ABC's are stable," She reported, looking rather relieved. "I don't like his respiratory rate or pulse rate, but they are stable."

"That's good," Chief Burns said, visibly relaxing.

Dani made a small noise signifying that she had heard her dad, before she returned to her task. She mechanically continued on in her assessment, tuning out from her surroundings.

Chief understood. Dani was trying to focus into her task and blocking out her emotions. Scarily, it reminded him of how he had been after Dani's mother passed away. He could only busy himself to ignore his own grief. 

But at least it was doing something to help, so he could let such behavior slide for the current moment. He watched as his daughter continued with a trauma assessment and suddenly had the thought that he should be doing something as well. His mind wandered back to Graham's leg that was still trapped under the console. Maybe he could….

"Dad?" Dani said suddenly.

Chief Burns straightened from his semi-hunched position. "What do you need?"

Her eyes were locked on the same leg that he had looked at earlier.

"I'll get the tools from Heatwave," Chief said resolutely, standing up from crouched position.


	3. Gruppenleiter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for this chapter being so short. Yet this scene fits nowhere else in this story, and I felt that it was simply too important to simply cut out.

Boulder had come back to awareness minutes ago. Yet all that Heatwave could think about was how much he felt like a failure. He’d never admit it to anyone though. Not even his team who was gathered around him and his injured teammate, trying their best to fix him up for the ride back to the station where they could do more for him.

Optimus had entrusted him with this mission, to protect the humans of this planet. Yet he had both failed to keep with it and had even managed to get his own friend seriously hurt in the process. He remembered back to this morning and how he had just spoken to Boulder before he left for the call. 

He could have went with him. He  _ should _ have went with them. It isn’t like he cared about getting Kade’s permission anyway. Graham’s presence could’ve been enough to ward off any person who dared to question why he was there.

Still, he didn’t. He didn’t even help his team when they needed it the most. Primus, he’s the one who deserved to be laying on the ground with a crushed cab, not Boulder.

The guilt was crushing him. However, he was his team’s leader. He needed to get over himself and be strong for them. All of them. 

So when Chief made his way out of Boulder’s cab, a concept still odd and foreign to him, he straightened up to fill in the role that Optimus had given him. He tried not to deflate when he saw the Chief’s facial expression. Heatwave might not have been an expert on human body language, but it was similar enough to an Autobot’s for him to decipher its meaning.

His form was semi-hunched over as if he were carrying a heavy load but trying to seem like he was having no trouble at all. Yet it was his face that gave everything away. Heatwave knew, because that was the exact same thing he was feeling right now. 

He was so hyper-focused on the Chief that he nearly missed when he began speaking to Boulder, who had just bombarded him with questions on his partner’s physical health. Yet his focus was once again detracted from the conversation when he noticed the Chief’s hands.

They were covered in red. It almost reminded Heatwave of the paint that Boulder had been using the other day in painting, but there was no paint around. No, the more likely explanation was blood. Heatwave had seen blood before, on the small cuts and scrapes of the people that they rescued, but he had never seen so much.

Yet he was not the only one to have noticed. Boulder had stopped talking and though Heatwave could not see his face, seemed to become panicked rather than his worried state earlier. Heatwave had the nagging thought that Boulder should be worried about himself before the partner who he’s barely known for a month, but Boulder was not him he supposed.

Chief listened as Boulder let his worries out, before speaking. He looked older as he did so.

“I’m glad to see you awake Boulder. And I know that you are worried, we all are, but I must ask a favor. Graham’s in a tight spot currently, and I’m afraid that he’ll be in an even worse one if we do not get him out of it. Heatwave, you carry extraction tools right?”

“Yes,” Heatwave said, ready to transform so that Chief could get them.

“Can I have them?”

Heatwave nodded and transformed, staying still for Chief. Once he had chosen the tools that he would need, Heatwave transformed back. After a quick thank you, Chief turned back to Boulder.

“Would you be okay with me using these on you?” He asked, gesturing to the tools he was holding.

Boulder nodded. “If it’ll help Graham, yes. Besides my cab’s already banged up. What’s a little more damage?”

The hint of humor in his voice fell flat. Chief instead returned the nod, and began to climb back in. Heatwave returned his attention to Boulder, who despite trying to lighten the mood, still held a grimace on his face.

Heatwave knew that the next few minutes would be horrific for him.


	4. Stauschlauch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello. I apologize for this chapter taking so long to upload. Yet I didn't give up on it so at least there's that. This chapter may be very heavy on the practical side of things, though I did try to add in as much emotion as I could. As one of my goals that I set for this story is to do the EMS side of things justice, this chapter became necessary. If this chapter bores you, I apologize. The next two chapters won't be so full of jargon. I hope for this to be a little bit of a learning experience and if you have any questions about the things that go down in this chapter, feel free to ask me in the comments section.
> 
> Thank you for all of your support.

Dani did not like that she had to be the one responsible for her little brother. She wished that someone else could take over so that she could hide away and maybe even cry.  
The whole mission was a failure from the start. Graham should have never been sent out to care for such a dangerous emergency alone. Even when they had gotten to the scene after he had called for backup, things hadn't gone the way she now knew they should have. She had been preoccupied with the shaken Edgar in front of her, her and Kade both, that she didn't have the time to help Blades, her own partner. Perhaps it wouldn't have really mattered in the end, but maybe, just maybe, if she had been there she could have prevented this from ending so tragically.  
She wanted to be mad at anyone; Cody for not sending out enough people, Chase for not holding on long enough, Boulder for letting go, Graham for not calling for backup sooner … the list went on and on. However, she knew that the outcome very well might've been the same. Besides, she could never stay mad at any of her family for very long. Annoyed, yes; but mad, no.  
She instead turned back to her work. Though she didn't like it, she knew that she had the strongest background in the emergency medical services in her family, leaving her as the one currently in charge.  
Dani finished up her head-to-toe trauma assessment while her Dad was getting the extraction tools. By the end of it, her worry had tripled. She had found way more injuries than she would have been comfortable finding on any patient, much less her own younger sibling. She did not like to acknowledge the existence of all the larger cuts and possibly broken bones. Still, she forced herself to.  
Kade chose that moment to speak up. His voice was more soft and sober than she could ever remember it being.  
"Do you think he is going to be okay?"  
Dani placed her stethoscope back into her kit, instead pulling out a c-collar. Though she had found no evidence of a neck injury, she knew it was protocol and could prevent later injury.  
"I can't tell you for certain if he'll be okay or not, that's for the doctors to tell you."  
With that, she tore open the package and put the cervical collar around his neck. Kade went back to being silent as he kept his brother's head in place while she did so.  
Dani, having nothing to say either, continued in her care. She both loathed and embraced the silence. On one hand it left her in her own head space. And it was somewhere she wasn't sure that she wanted to go to. On the other hand, it allowed her to focus more intently on helping her brother's condition. No matter how she felt, she felt better concentrating on the task and helping him survive. Especially because EMS had not gotten here yet, and she was forced into being the first responder.  
Her thoughts were pushed out of the forefront of her mind as she returned her attention to Graham. While as the first responder she couldn't do as much as she'd like, such as getting him out of Boulder's mangled cab, she wasn't totally useless.  
She pulled out her trauma shears and began cutting away the torn button up from Graham's still form, to inspect a bloodied wound that she had seen there. Anywhere else on the body, she would have ignored it until later in favor of caring for more life-threatening injuries. Yet, its positioning on the body made it much more worrying.  
She peeled the shirt away, balling it up and tossing it aside. Her eyes scanned his entire chest, and upon finding only a few minor scrapes elsewhere, locked in on the wound. Where the flesh was torn was heavy bruising covered by the drying blood. Her mind supplied that something must’ve hit him there with the rock fall; likely not the rock itself but the frame of the window or part of the controls. Luckily, the cut wasn’t exceedingly deep. She pulled out a fitting trauma dressing before pressing it to the cut. She ignored Graham’s twitch away as she taped it in place.  
Dani went on autopilot as she dressed the worst of the cuts, the ones that were either life-threatening or potentially life-threatening. She barely heard the thumping of her dad’s footsteps as he returned with the extraction tools. She only stopped when he dropped down on the other side of Graham, looking up as he set the tools down beside him.  
“Are you ready?” He asked as he finished.  
“I am.”  
She stood up and walked over to the ruined console. Her father followed with the ram. He pulled on his gloves as she pulled off her disposable gloves, replacing them with the thick, sturdier ones in her back pocket. Meanwhile, Chief crouched down, brushing away debris that might get in the way later before sliding the ram into place. Before turning on the tool, he paused.  
“Dani, once I tell you to, pull his leg out.”  
He pressed the trigger on the power tool and it began to apply pressure. The metal creaked and groaned as it bent upwards.  
Dani crouched in silence, watching as the machine did its job. Over the noise, she heard the distant noise of ambulance sirens. It distracted her, but she focused back in time to hear her father turning off the ram and telling her to pull the leg out from under the console.  
As swiftly and gently as she could manage, Dani brought her brother's leg out into the light. Through the torn fabric, she could see blood beginning to flow freely again from the wound, likely because there no longer was any pressure from the cab cutting off the blood flow. Her trauma shears cut off the lower pant leg with difficulty, and she eased the blood soaked boot off of his foot. With the injury completely exposed, she could get a good look at it. It was quite obviously broken. However, that wasn’t what she was worried about.  
She pulled out a large trauma dressing, pressing it to the shredded flesh, ignoring the low groan of pain that came from Graham, who remained unconscious. When the blood continued to seep through the thick cloth, she began to pack the wound as tight as she could. It was enough to remove the pallor that seeped through his skin, but it did not stop the blood for longer than a minute. Frustration crept up in her thoughts but she pushed away the emotion. She had to stop the bleeding, or else her luck might just tank. The seriousness of the situation caged her once again as she pulled out a tourniquet.  
Someone climbed onto the cab, shaking the surface she crouched on. She ignored her father filling EMS in on the situation, instead looping the tourniquet around Graham’s thigh. Strapping it in place tightly, she turned the windlass rod until she could no more, and locked it in place. She stood up, letting the feeling back into her legs, before stepping over the debris. Pulling out a pen, she scribbled out the time, the date, her brother’s name and her initials onto his forehead.  
By the time she finished the task, the paramedics had made it down into the cab, alongside her dad. It was a tight fit, but they could make it work. The lead paramedic began his own assessment as she filled him in on what she had learned and did so far.  
After several grueling minutes, the medic seemed satisfied with the assessment and her report, and motioned his partner to position the backboard beside Graham. Slowly, they turned him onto his side, at Kade’s direction from the head. They completed the process of getting him onto the backboard and strapped him in place.  
Getting him out of the cab was much more difficult than Dani would have liked it to be. Luckily, they had been wise enough to have waited for the extra help. When one person had to climb up, the others were able to keep the board in place until they could regain their footing and their hold. It was a slow go, but eventually they made up out of the cab and onto the flat ground.  
They laid Graham onto the positioned stretcher. She stepped back as the paramedic crew carted her little brother off to the ambulance.  
Though they never moved throughout the entire event, she could feel the bots watching them do so along with her and her family.


	5. Bruder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello, readers. I hope this update finds you well. You would think that with all this time being spent in quarantine, I would have more time to write, but in fact it seems that I have more school work to do than ever before! Oh well, we're still pushing through. Remember to stay at home as much as possible, and to wash your hands frequently. Hopefully this will cure any boredom you may have, even for just a little bit.

Kade was having trouble coping. Yes, he could admit that. He never dealt as well with highly emotional situations as his father or any of his other siblings. Even more so, he couldn't deal with hospitals. Thus it was a surprise to approximately nobody that he volunteered to ride with Heatwave back to the station with boulder in tow.

However, none of that meant he was staying completely calm. In fact, he was far from it. He was sure that if he could grip the steering wheel harder, he'd probably pull it clean off. At this realization, he forced himself to lessen his grip.

"So why didn't you want to go with your family?" Heatwave asked, once Kade had wrestled himself back under control, shoving the stress to the back of his mind.

"What do you mean?"

He had thought that he had covered up his intentions well enough.

"Chief didn't ask you to come along with us. You volunteered."

Kade huffed, staring ahead at the road. "Someone had to."

He could almost picture his partner's huff of frustration. "But why you specifically. You obviously are worried about him. Unless human body language is that much different from what I’m used to.”

It was Kade’s turn to be frustrated. Why did Heatwave even care? It wasn’t like they were really friends of any sorts. Of course they got along well enough to complete calls, but that was the extent of their relationship.

“Nevermind, forget I even asked,” the bot grumbled when he didn’t get a response after a long awkward silence.

The truth was not that Kade didn’t want to be there for his brother; in fact, the opposite. Graham was and always would be his little brother, but he just…. Ever since his mother died, the hospital was always going to be the place where he had to say goodbye. Every time he had to go there, an unstoppable wave of fear crashed over him that he’d lose another person close to him. It had never happened, but that did not stop his anxious mind.

What was even worse was the fact that that fear was completely justified this time. The memory of Graham’s broken, bloodied body forced its way into his consciousness, and he desperately tried to ignore it. He willed the tears welling up in his eyes to cease to exist. He wasn’t going to break down, not in front of Heatwave.

His efforts were in vain though. The tears could not be held back any longer. He had been holding them back ever since he watched his brother and his partner disappear over the edge of that cliff. Thankfully, Heatwave didn’t comment and left him to get it out of his system.

Admittedly, Kade did not feel much better doing so. Not only that, but now Heatwave knew just how weak of a person he was, has always been. He needed to stop crying, like right now. He rubbed the back of his hand across his face, erasing his little meltdown from reality.

Heatwave was giving him a pensive look, as if he was deciding whether or not to broach the subject. Kade pleaded with his eyes for him to do the latter, but it was unfortunately lost on the autobot.

“Are you ready to talk yet?”

The anger was back. Honestly, Kade didn’t even know which he was more of: afraid or indignant. Likely both. Terrified of losing Graham, indignant at the unfairness of it. Hadn’t he lost enough?

“There’s nothing to talk about. Graham’s going to die.”

Heatwave looked taken aback.

“You don’t know that.”

Kade took a deep breath, feeling the tears beginning to make a comeback. Logically, he knew that Graham was still alive, and still had a chance to come back, but the seed of doubt was already plaguing him. He’d been unconscious for too long, and if it was because of a head injury, it meant that Graham might not be the same if he ever woke back up.

“You’re right. I don’t.”

Heatwave could have acted smug, that Kade admitted his own insecurity, but he didn’t. Instead, he looked almost sympathetic.

“I think you should go to the hospital, after we get back. Put your mind at ease, at the very least. I’ll go with you of course. I don’t think you’re in the right mindset to be responding to any calls anyway.”

Kade’s eyes widened. This was… unexpected. Maybe, just maybe, Heatwave was right. Perhaps him and Heatwave were beginning to understand one another. Logically though, it wasn’t a good idea. For many reasons.

“I can’t do that, Heatwave. Somebody has to be on call, in case any more emergencies happen. No matter what has happened. The emergency services have to. Besides I couldn’t take you there. You should be there for your friend.”

Heatwave deflated at that. Kade was surprised and a bit flattered that Heatwave was willing to give up time with a close friend for his sake, but it was better that Kade just stayed at the firehouse.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the aforementioned location and pulled into the garage. As Kade helped detach Boulder from Heatwave’s towline, he repeated the conversation in his head. He barely noticed as Heatwave and Blades, who had followed them back to the station at Chief’s order, helped the damaged bot down to the bunker. He sat on a crate as Blades fussed over Boulder and Heatwave disappeared, likely to contact another bot who could help them fix the bulldozer.

Kade tried not to let his mind wander back to bad thoughts. The helicopter was apologizing to Boulder, who was trying to tell him that it wasn’t his fault. Kade tuned them out, not wanting to think about the events of this morning any more than he had to.

Eventually, he realized that by ignoring everything, he was just simply setting himself up to disappearing back into his own thoughts. So he stood up and made his way over to the pair.

“Is there anything I can do to help you, Boulder?”

The bot looked up at his inquiry. Kade recognized that they probably were confused. He wasn’t exactly known to be the most helpful person, at least to the bots, but Kade could be a nice person when he wanted to be. It seemed appropriate now.

Heatwave was the one to speak up next.

“I got a hold of Optimus. He says that Boulder should be taken off of duty for now. A medical bot will contact us in about one earth hour. In the meantime, he wants us to get the broken glass out.”

“I’m on it,” Kade said, already moving to gather up the supplies.

He could feel their eyes follow him as he left, but Kade couldn’t care less. It was something he could do to keep his mind occupied. Besides, it wasn’t like any of them could fit in Boulder’s cab. He grabbed a bucket, brush, some cleaner, and pulled his thick gloves out of his pockets.

They were damp. Kade didn’t want to think about it, but there was no denying it. It was blood. He tossed them into the bin with the rags that needed to be washed, and grabbed a fresh pair.

When he made it back, he only stopped to ask permission of Boulder before he methodically began the process of removing glass and blood from the interior of the cab. All in all it took about an hour and a half, and by that point Heatwave had come back with information from the bot medic. There wasn’t much to do for Boulder besides ordering and waiting for parts and straightening the metal.

That took another hour of time that Kade tried not to think during. However, it was a losing battle. He knew that he was going to have to think about it sooner or later. Him and the bots were now just sitting around, except Boulder who had seemingly gone into some sort of sleep mode. Stasis, Kade thought was the correct term.

Still, Kade was slowly being killed by the fact that he didn’t know what was going on with Graham. If he was awake, his family surely would have let him know by now. Finally, he decided that if he couldn’t be there, he could at least contact one of his family members.

So with that, he slipped away from the group again. He sat down in the dispatch chair and called his dad. The phone rang for several minutes, before there came a tired answer.

“Hello?”


End file.
